Following export restrictions related to a permit dispute,
Freeport furloughed some 3,000 workers in Indonesia earlier this
year, which prompted a strike and high levels of absenteeism.

Freeport later deemed that approximately 3,000 full-time and
1,000 contract employees who were absent had "voluntarily
resigned."

A spokesman for Freeport Indonesia declined to make
immediate comment on the allegations made by IndustriALL on
Friday, referring to earlier statements by Freeport.

Arizona-based Freeport, the world's biggest publicly-traded
copper miner, has repeatedly said it has acted on labour issues
in accordance with Indonesian law and its labour contract, with
former employees able to apply for open positions with
contractor companies.

About 300 workers were dismissed from PT Smelting in January
and the company said at the time that it aimed to replace them
after a labour strike.

PT Smelting is jointly owned and operated by Japan's
Mitsubishi Materials Corp and Freeport. A spokesperson
for Mitsubishi Materials in Tokyo could not be reached for
comment during a public holiday on Friday.

IndustriALL representatives from unions in Australia, the
Netherlands, South Africa and North America have been in
Indonesia to push the government to "uphold fundamental labour
standards" and help to get workers' jobs back.

Vickers said both Freeport and PT Smelting had acted in
"clear violations" of workers' rights to organise, bargain
collectively and strike.

The federation urged both companies to "immediately
reinstate all the workers they have fired, then negotiate fair
resolutions of the matters that provoked workers to strike in
the first place," he said.

IndustriALL says it represents 50 million workers in 140
countries worldwide and has previously worked to highlight
safety and pay issues in Southeast Asia's garment industry.

"In this case, resignations were an unfortunate consequence
for a number of workers who had prolonged absenteeism from work
despite multiple efforts and requests by the company to return
to work," Freeport said on Friday ahead of the statement by
IndustriALL.
(Reporting by Wilda Asmarini in Jakarta; Writing by Fergus
Jensen; Editing by Joseph Radford)